Elspode

"The Current War: Director's Cut" is, in a word, gripping. Even though I am deeply familiar with the subject matter and the great inventors and industrialists involved in the tale of how the alternating current propounded by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse prevailed over the direct current system of Thomas Edison, I was held absolutely rapt and engaged from beginning to end of this "based on a true story" historical offering.

Leading a stellar cast is Benedict Cumberbatch as T.A. Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park. Cumberbatch captures perfectly every overt thing we've heard about Edison's drive, his passion, his need for attention and his hatred of rivals and patent thieves. Despite having to play a man whose moods and volatility are legendary, he does a glorious job of infusing Edison with a sense of pathos and humanity not captured in any other film I've seen with Edison as a character.

His primary foil is George Westinghouse, just beginning to parlay his success with train air brakes into something much more grand, much more impactful. Played as a humanitarian who cares more for improving the world than for mere dollars by Michael Shannon, his calm and measured demeanor beautifully offsets the more edgy and vain Edison.

Show throughout is the love that both men have for their wives, who are played as much as partners as spouses (as evidence, when Mrs. Westinghouse is introduced early on, the accompanying identifying text describes her as "wife and partner"). The film clearly invites us to see everyone as human beings first, and icons of technology, invention and entrepreneurialism second. Historical efforts are often rather dry and factual, and it is refreshing to see an effort made to humanize those involved. When the unthinkable happens to Mrs. Edison, Thomas' grief is inconsolable, his melancholy palpable and enduring.

As the competition to be *the* electrical standard that will serve the world, Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) enters the scene, and IMHO, he is not actually given as much attention as he deserves in all of this (he essentially made practical the theoretical and unfulfilled promise of alternating current). The fact that Edison was involved in trying to supply power to the world for lighting is basically forgotten by us at this point in history, so superior was AC and Tesla's invention of the AC motor.

The competition comes to a head when Edison and Westinghouse offer their bids to see who will illuminate the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago...The White City, as it would come to be known. Will the World's Fair committee choose Edison's less efficient system with its inherent inefficiencies, but with built in name recognition and draw potential, or Westinghouse/Tesla's cheaper and infinitely more expandable and functional AC system? Of course we know how that works out, because we live in that future now.

A simple drama would end with Edison walking away to lick his wounds and disappear into obscurity, but he was in fact brilliant and unparalleled as a brute force creator, and so the film ends with us being firmly reminded that Edison created the first practical motion picture technology, and so the film winds up neatly, properly, and respectfully on all counts.

I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention the incredible soundtrack music that moves through this film. My viewing partner said that "it was like another character", and that is spot on. Heavily oriented in bass synth notes with sparse yet perfect strings above, the insinuation of the music is always at the exact right time, always with the exact right amount of both intensity and reserve. Major kudos to composers Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O'Halloran. I will be seeking out their other work together. The CGI is absolutely seamless and perfect, the sets, costuming, and period appropriate lighting spot on. A beautiful film visually, auditorially and emotionally. On one final note, those who enjoy popular mainstream action and superhero films will be pleasantly surprised to see Tom Holland in a substantial supporting role.

A solid 9 out of 10 for me. YMMV.

I am so old that I watched TOS from it's first episode. I have seen every Trek film in the theater when it was released. I attended a Trekkie event in the early 80's at Kemper Arena when Roddenberry was still the main attraction, and he was showing the original version of the Star Trek pilot, which was the *only* way one got to see it back in those days. It was the central feature of the three hour evening event, along with blooper reels and his wonderful tales of the olden days. I say all this so that I can say *this*, and hope that it is taken with at least a small amount of gravitas: I think that "Beyond" is the best film of the venerable series. If you leave aside the arguments about which cast you prefer, what epoch, things like TNG vs original vs Abrams reboot canon...yes...the best single film of the series. Is it bombastic? Yes,very...but the bombast is deftly woven, with each set piece, each intensely flowing scene or battle making sense in the whole - rare for a Sci-Fi film these days, where the emphasis is always on the gee whiz of special effects and CGI, to the detriment of the story or the characters. The 3D CGI is the best I've seen since "Avatar". The sound production is possibly the best *ever* (keeping in mind that seeing films in IMAX is a whole other bar for media rendered in lesser formats). Topped off with the fact that I cannot imagine a better set of players to represent our venerated TOS crew members - these actors don't so much portray TOS characters as *channel* them at times - the reasons to see "Beyond" are many. So deft and respectful and loving are the hands that guide this "new" iteration (the first reboot film, "Star Trek", was made seven years ago), that nods to the original cast, which could easily be hamhanded and just plain irritating, land fuzzy and warm in your lap, bringing a near certainty of tears being shed by the viewer. However, the single most impressive thing as in this entire film, as regards giving nods to the original television series...from my POV...is a scene where Spock and McCoy are moving through an area where they are completely surrounded by rocks...and the outcroppings are *so* obviously a set, as opposed to the spectacularly rendered CGI everywhere else, and so garishly colored and sculpted, that it *must* have been a nod to the sometimes comical sets of TOS. The fact that there is more classic Spock vs McCoy banter in "Beyond" than in any of it's reboot predecessors only makes me more certain that this seemingly clumsily rendered scene was, in fact, a loving tribute. Folks...*no* detail in such a high stakes Hollywood film exists by accident, and this must have been by design.

In conclusion, if the future of our beloved Star Trek could be in better hands than those of JJ Abrams and his minions, I cannot imagine who that might have been.

In case you can't discern from the title, this is a *very* violent film, so don't be a putz and take your five or six year old kid, like a couple of people did at the Independence, Missouri AMC screening tonight. There are more triple-taps to the head than any film in recent memory, to the point that it becomes rather over the top by the time the film ends All that said, Walter Hill has woven yet another well-paced, engrossing buddy film actioner with a pretty good left hand twist. Stallone plays a weary New Orleans hit-man very convincingly, and with a very wry sense of humor. Were he any more droll, he would have to become a British citizen.

"Bullet" has everything an Action fan loves...really nasty bad guys, impossibly punishing fights, explosions, hot women, and main characters you can actually care something about. The plot isn't suspenseful, but it isn't meant to be, as our heroes go on what for one is a vendetta, and for the other a bumbling police investigation. Indeed, Sung Kang's Washington DC detective seems at times to have the insight of a rock, but Kang is pretty and plays well alongside the grizzled Stallone.

All and all, if you enjoy this sort of film, well...you'll enjoy "Bullet to the Head".